Chapter 3- Right and Wrong
A dull day. The clouds cover the sun, casting a lifeless atmosphere on the world. The cool air makes the breath of those around visible. The voices of the passengers fill the air as they step of the small and worn out boat onto the port. After the rest of the passengers rushed off as fast as they could, a figure dressed in a long red cloak steps off the boat. As the figure walks forward, she arrives at a large market. The place is crowded with people making it difficult to navigate. She looks on at the market as she pulls out her coin pouch.
Anima. I made it. As the girl thinks to herself, she looks in her coin pouch. Shit...Not much left.
With her coin pouch in hand, the girl makes her way around the stalls, looking around at the various items, but mainly the food. The crowded area made bumping into one another practically unavoidable however most seemed to avoid the ominous figure cloaked in the blood red hood. Ruby felt something bump into her. It barley took a tenth of a second for her to notice it was a small boy, no older than ten with baggy, torn clothes and long unkempt hair, it took even less time to realise he took her coin pouch. By the time Ruby turned around the young boy blended in with the rest of the crowed.
The boy sat in an alleyway near the market. He counted the money in the pouch. "Shit! There's barely anything in here!" He shouts to himself.
"I know" Ruby states in an emotionless tone, standing behind the boy.
The boy jumps up, quickly turning to face behind him. Before he can even react, the pouch is taken from him.
The boy's eyes widen as he realises what happened. He quickly falls to the floor. "I'm sorry for what I did, I'll never do it again." The boy speaks with an obviously not earnest tone.
Ruby looks on with a blank expression. "We both know that's a lie."
The boy clenches his fist in fear. He speaks with an overly whiny and obviously fake tone. "I'm sorry, I know it's wrong...y-y-you see... it's just I-I-I ha...ve no money... and... and... and... I'm just so hungry. You see both my parents died and my cruel grandpar-"
"That's enough. I don't care."
The boy looks up and is surprised by the girl in the red cloak's blank facial expression.
The girl in the Blood Red cloaks turns away from the boy and walks onward. Damn annoying brat wasting my time, she thinks to herself.
Meanwhile, in a bar quite close by, A guy and a girl sit at a table, drinking their beer.
The girl has red eyes, black hair with bright pink highlights down to her shoulders, and a short fringe. She wears a black top and jeans, with a long pink coat, multiple belts with a few pouches on each cover her torso, waist and legs. She sat laid back on her chair chugging her drink.
The guy also had red eyes, with long blond hair reaching his back and a fringe touching his eye lashes. He sits with his left arm on the table, holding his bottle with his right, gulping down his drink. Wearing a leather coat, bright red shirt, black boots and blue jeans, he places down his drink and looks at the girl.
"Hey, Jen."
She slams her drink on the table. "What is it now, Trace", Jen asks in an annoyed tone.
"We didn't come all the way down here, just to drink cheap-ass beer, did we?" He speaks with a smirk across his face and a smug voice.
"Trace..." Jen facepalms, groaning in an annoyed tone, "it's not like I can control when the target shows up, is it?"
"How long we got to wait?" Trace asks.
"4 hours."
Trace lets out a sigh as he finishes his drink and stares out the window.
Upon exiting the alleyway Ruby walks down the street. From across the street, in the bar, Trace notices a figure in a red cloak walk down the street. Suddenly, he stans up. He looks at Jen with a shocked expression.
"Bloody... Jen look!" Trace enthusiastically points out the window. "Is that the Reaper."
"Of Remnant?" Jen asks confused, as she peers out the window. "It can't be. Aren't they supposed to be in Sanus." She looks down confused as she mumbles "Wait... why are they called the Reaper of Remnant. Reaper of Sanus seems more appropriate."
Trace nudges Jen and cheerfully asks, "should we? Imagine how much we'll get on the Mistral black market if we bring the Reaper in."
"Are you crazy. They say that the Reaper single-handedly destroyed the entire town of Stonebank in one night...besides we have a job to do." Jen states, clearly concerned.
"Come on rumours are exaggerated all the time. There's no way that's completely true, plus we have plenty of time. Besides if it's the two of us we can do anything."
Trace's eyes brim with enthusiasm and confidence as Jen looks into them.
Jen gives in. "Fine."
Trace triumphantly walks to the door. "Let's go", he states in a smug manner.
Jen smiles as she follows behind.
Ruby stops. She turns to face behind her. "Why are you following me?", she coldly demands.
"How come you didn't care?" The boy who stole Ruby's money asks.
"What?" She asks, confused, but her facial expression blank.
"Well, normally I get punched and have to run but you just went away." The boy says as he steps closer to Ruby. He looks into her eyes. "You have grey eyes..." the boy quietly stated.
"They're silver." Ruby responded, ever so slightly agitated.
"But..."
"Listen, kid-"
"My names Se." he interrupts.
"Listen kid, leave me alone."
"But why?" Se inquires, tilting his head and speaking in a childish voice.
Ruby turns and walks away from the little boy. But the little boy follows. As Ruby continues walking through the now empty street, the boy still follows. Ruby glances at the boy, now right next to her, Se glances back with a grin but Ruby quickly faces forward again.
"Hey!" The voice of a man shouts.
Ruby looks back to see Trace standing there. He wore gloves with three blades attached to the knuckle and what looked like a gun on its side.
Ruby heard a foot step coming from behind her and instantly turned her head to find Jen standing there. Jen had a large machinegun in her hands, pointed directly at Ruby.
Damn it I should've heard them coming, she glances at the kid, damn it. Ruby looks around her. The street was narrow with seemingly no one nearby. Damn it! She thought to herself. Ruby stood still between the two, her left facing the man, while her right faced the woman. Se had a look of confusion and fright as he leaned on Ruby.
"She looks a little young" Jen stated to Trace.
Trace lowers his hands slightly as he asks "Hey... are you the Reaper of Remnant?"
Jen keeps her gun straight, focused on Ruby.
Ruby raises her left eyebrow. With her head slightly facing left she and with a perplex expression, she asks. "Who?"
Jen slightly lowers her weapon as well.
Trace lets out a deep disappointed sigh. He fully lowers his hands. "So, you weren't the one who destroyed Stonebank then?"
Up until then Se and Ruby were just as confused as each other, however after that question, that changed. Not knowing the full situation gave Ruby little reason to lie, so she answered his question with the truth.
"Yea, that was me."
It took the two a second to take in what the girl had said. The instant they did, Jen and Trace both raised their weapons. It was not what the girl said that made the two believe her words, but the fact she stated it so calmly, without a hint of hesitation, that made the two believe her.
As they raised their weapons Se tightly grabbed onto Ruby. Whether it was to avoid needlessly killing him by accident or she did it without even realising it, Ruby held the little boy close to her with her left arm, while at the same time pulling out her scythe with her right. Either way it meant that the boy was in her way.
Guess I should have said no, Ruby thought to herself. "So that's what they're calling me." Ruby said with a small smile across her face. Although she would never admit it, even to herself, the idea of being known all across the Land was appealing to her, and under the right circumstances she did enjoy the occasional fight. After all she did at one point, want to be a Huntress.
After seeing the colossal scythe, Trace and Jen confirmed to themselves that they were indeed facing the dreaded Reaper of Remnant.
The four stood there, in the narrow street, three of them waiting, ready to fight.
Trace begins to talk, his hands firmly up prepared for a fight. "So, you're the feared Reaper of Remnant. I'm surprised, I didn't expect you to be a little girl. You know for a young girl you have quite a gruff voice."
With her left-hand Ruby touches her neck, the comment making her remember the pain, but still focusing on the three in front of her, she lowers her left hand and firmly grabs Se. Se remains grasping onto Ruby, too scared to even look up. Jen looks straight ahead to Ruby, her finger on the trigger.
"How old are you? 15? 16?" Trace spoke in a cocky tone, but in truth he was a little fearful. She may have looked like a little girl but the cuts and scar across her face, made her seem dangerous.
The second Trace finished taking, Jen pulls the trigger. Trace jumps onto the wall as a swarm of bullets head directly towards Ruby. Quickly Ruby swings her scythe, deflecting the bullets.
As soon as the bullets stopped Ruby realised the attack plan. She quickly turns to her left, throwing Se behind her. Trace had leaped from the wall and was now centimetres away from Ruby, from the momentum of her turn, Ruby was able to swing her scythe in time to block his blades.
As his blades touched the scythe his feet also touched the floor and he quickly sprung backwards. Ruby moved the scythe's blade towards him. The blade tore into his jacket, it would have cut into him but luckily for him, in a panic he fired a bullet which hit the blade, pushing it back and him forward. His aura was able to stop the blade from causing any minor damage.
The force of the shot was also lucky for Ruby, with her skill she was able to swing her scythe back around to stop another swarm of bullets while simultaneously flinging Se back around to her front.
Trace momentarily flinched as he felt the pain of his wound before leaping back to attack Ruby. Upon noticing Trace's wound, Jen also temporarily flinched. Using this to her advantage, Ruby pushed Se away as she darted towards Jen with her semblance. Jen barely made out the blur as it rushed towards her. Jen instinctively pulled the trigger however the Reaper of Remnant was able to deflect the bullets. The figure in the red cloak grabbed the gun with her left hand and pulled it to the side.
With her left arm Jen was able to keep a hold of the weapon, but this just left her more defenceless. It appeared that Jen tried to quickly activate her semblance. Trace realised what was happening and tried to leap towards Jen. The Reaper extended her aura so that it covered her weapon, and with a single strike of her weapon she destroyed Jen's aura and smashes her into the wall of a building.
"Jen!" Screamed Trace.
As the Reaper turned to face Tracer, she halted. Ruby gave a stern look as she saw Tracer grabbing a hold of Se. The boy screamed and kicked in retaliation, to little avail, tears streaming down his face.
Trace's face showed his unfiltered rage and his eyes were bright red. He lifts his hand, it appeared as though he was about to activate his semblance.
BANG!
He is flung back, letting go of Se. The Blood Red figure drops the shot gun and prepares to dash forward. Jen stands up from the rubble, gun pointed, barely able to stand up. Suddenly, the Reaper feels a pull on her scythe, she looks over to see Trace using his semblance.
His semblance must be similar to Pyrrha's, Ruby thought. Though this put Trace at a disadvantage because Ruby had thought of ways to deal with the semblance of everyone she knew, in case she ever had to fight them at Beacon. Giving it a push with her arm she let go of the scythe, as it went towards Trace, Jen pulled up her gun.
The Reaper jumps up, throwing her sword from inside her cloak, Jen couldn't move her gun up in time, so the sword goes straight through her chest.
Blood splatters as Ruby pulls her sword back to her and lands on the ground. The scythe hits the floor. The instant Trace realises what happened the sword cuts into his neck. As his aura depletes, blood drips and his lifeless body hits the ground with a thud.
The fight only lasted ten seconds.
As he sits there on the cold floor, it takes Se a few second to process what happened. In that time Ruby calmly cleaned the blood of her sword, picked up her gun, and took the coin pouches from the two corpses.
"Who says it's wrong." Ruby asks.
The boy looks at Ruby, confused, his eyes red and his body shivering.
"As long as your successful then doesn't it mean that you're in the right." Her question more stated rather than asked.
The boy looks at Ruby, still confused.
"About you stealing my coin pouch. If you're right then you'll survive and if you're wrong then you'll die." Ruby spoke in a calm tone, with a stoic facial expression. Ruby declares as she walks off.
The boy looks on, confused by her words. He remembers her eyes, she said they were silver, but to him they were a dull grey.
As the blood red Reaper of Remnant walks down the path, she thinks to herself, Anima. I made it. Cinder said she was from Haven, I will find her, I will find Salem, and I'll kill them...
Meanwhile, somewhere near Mistral, Arthur Watts and Cinder Fall stand still, awaiting the message from Salem. The Seer Grimm glows red.
Watts presents himself in a confident and collected manor, speaking into the Seer, "Good evening mam.
"Any news with the where-abouts of Tyrian?" Salem asks.
In her dry and raspy voice, Cinder replies "Mercury and Emerald are looking for him but with have yet to hear from them."
"Call them back here, the fall of Haven is upon us and we need everyone here" Salem states.
"Yes mam" they both reply.
The Seer turns black as the image of Salem disappears.
"That girl" Cinder mumbles, her voice raspy and deep.
"You think that silver eyed girl beat Tyrian, please! That fool probably just got lost on the way back. Even someone as crazy as him can easily beat a fifteen-year-old girl." His voice cocky, intentionally mocking Cinder.
Cinder turns to Watts. Her stare cold and cruel. She turns and walks off into the woods, Watts walks behind her.
The Blood Red Reaper of Remnant- Volume 0 – End
To Be Continued
And that's volume 0 finished. This volume was basically a time-jump prologue. Volume 1 will show how Ruby got to this point. Thanks for reading so far, I hope your enjoying it, all follows, favourites and reviews are greatly appreciated.